Douglas Steere, 93, Author, Professor And Quaker Leader

By J. MICHAEL ELLIOTT,

Published: February 16, 1995

Douglas V. Steere, an author and philosophy professor at Haverford College from 1928 to 1964 who helped organize Quaker relief efforts in Finland, Norway and Poland after World War II, died on Feb. 6 at his residence in the Quadrangle, a retirement community in Haverford, Pa. He was 93.

The cause was Alzheimer's disease, said his wife, Dorothy Mac Eachron Steere.

A Quaker leader throughout his career, Dr. Steere interrupted his teaching after the war to urge recovery efforts by the American Friends Service Committee in Europe.

He represented the Society of Friends at the Second Vatican Council in 1964, and was chairman of the Friends World Committee for Consultation from 1964 to 1970. The organization helped arrange international meetings of theologians in Japan and India to explore ecumenism.

He was born in Harbor Beach, Mich., received an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1929, a master's degree from Harvard University in 1925 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1931. He also earned degrees from Oxford University in 1927 and 1954.

He began teaching at Haverford in 1928 and was chairman of the philosophy department for several years. He was also a visiting professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in 1961 and 1962.

Dr. Steere was the author of more than 10 books, including "On Beginning From Within" (1943), "Doors Into Life" (1948), "On Listening to Another" (1955) and "Work and Contemplation" (1957).

Besides his wife, to whom he was married for 65 years, he is survived by two daughters, Helen Horn of New Marshfield, Ohio, and Anne Nash of Newton, Mass., three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.